Engaging Community Resources in Entrepreneurship Education: The Four P’s

Successful,
sustainable offerings of entrepreneurship education will not occur without the
active engagement of these resource groups from the community: Participants,
Providers, Practitioners, and Partners.

Generating
Participant interest in your entrepreneurial offerings is not a matter of
magnitude (the interest is strong); what matters is quality ("Does this
work?”), timeliness ("I want to act on my idea now, not tomorrow or next week”),
and network ("Will the contacts made through this class help my business?”). In
most models, measuring the satisfaction of the Participants is our only metric;
how we measure the engagement of the other critical groups will vary by
community.

Engaging
the local community and its resources in their critical role of nurturing this
entrepreneurial talent will pose unique challenges, especially in the harsh
economic environment prevalent in most communities today. The entrepreneurial
Practitioners in your area must be "plugged in” to your offerings. These
Practitioners may be presenters in class, mentors to the new
companies/businesses, vocal champions in the media, or even clients for some of
the new companies. If you don’t know who they are, find them. These businesses
are the practical evidence that your community can and will support these new
entrepreneurial companies.

Providers
administer the programs, pay the bills, do the marketing of the offerings,
handle the logistics of the programs (including enrollments, participant fee
payments/refunds, etc) and are generally the "go to” groups or individuals
inherent in your success. Their role cannot be overlooked or discounted. In our
model, the community college fulfills the responsibilities of the Provider,
maximizing the reach of these programs through the existing systems and service
networks already in use.

Partners
in the community come in many forms: Chambers of Commerce, local/regional/state
government entities, real estate companies, banks, school systems, law firms,
accounting firms. They do have one common denominator: they will be
beneficiaries of a vibrant and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in your
community. Scholarships, complimentary memberships, and discounts for services
are just a few of many forms of support that Partners can bring to the
offerings.

Successful
and sustainable entrepreneurial development requires more than just the
offering of a class. Considerable time and effort from many seemingly disparate
groups, successfully championed in the community, will lead to measurable
improvements in economic health.